AN: This is a collection for the 100 Word Prompt Collection Challenge on HPFC. I chose an Era-centric collection with the Founders, Riddle, and Marauder eras.

100 Word Prompt Collection Challenge: 1. Shivering

Drabble Club: shower (word)

200 Characters in 200 Days: Merope Gaunt

Emotion Challenge: Hatred

Merope stares out the window, resting her freckled chin on thin, bony hands. The glass is fogged up from the cold air, and as the snow melts, the grime is washed away. If only the grime on her could be washed away with a simple snowflake.

"'Merope!" she hears her father roar. "Get away from the bloody window and do some work!"

Morfin smiles, a show of cracked yellow teeth. "She's watching that bloody Muggle again, Father."

Merope turns around, eyes wide. She trembles as her father grabs her wrist, squeezing it. It sends a jolt of pain running up her arm. "If I catch you staring at a bloody Muggle one more time…" he trails off, sneering. He lets go of her wrist. "Bloody useless girl," she hears him mutter as he leaves.

Merope bows her head and begins washing the dishes, rubbing the rusted metal with a dirty rag that proves to be useless. Even the water is dirty, a sickly yellow waterfall. Everything is dirty in this house, and it only makes her want to leave this life behind.

She sits down hours later, hands red. The skin is cracked and dry, and her nails are caked with grime. She glances out the window, spotting two figures in the shower of snow. "Tom," she whispers. As if that longing whisper will make him come, make him love her.

She wipes the mist away slowly, making sure to hold her ignores the dew collecting at her fingertips, trickling down. Tom's face is alight with a smile as he looks down on Cecelia.

The thought of Cecelia's being in Tom's arms, Cecelia's face being peppered with Tom's kisses… Merope glares at the girl, wishing looks could kill. She watches as Tom pulls his cloak over Cecelia's shivering figure.

Merope wishes so, so much that she could be the one to have that cloak on her shivering shoulders.

But is only a wish, and Merope has yet to learn that wishes don't come true.